4 current, former Black SMUD workers win $6.2M jury verdict in racial discrimination case
Sacramento Superior Court jurors ruled last week that SMUD management blocked the career advancement of four Black plaintiffs and awarded the workers roughly $6.2 million in damages in their racial discrimination lawsuit.
In a statement Wednesday, leaders of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District said they would appeal the verdicts, “SMUD disagrees with and is disappointed in the outcome in this case. … SMUD has a longstanding, deep and visible commitment to ensuring we have a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace.”
If the utility fails to prevail on appeal, ratepayers would have to pay the judgment plus interest of 7% annually for the period that payment was delayed, said Michael Justice, the attorney for the plaintiffs.
Justice said his clients — SMUD employees Amy Ayers and Deborah Bates-Pettaway and former SMUD employees Dwayne Pugh and Rodney James — cried “tears of joy, tears of elation, tears of relief” as jurors read their answers to questions from the forms that determine the verdict and size of the awards.
“After years of being expressly told that they were lying about this, they were vindicated,” Justice said. “Somebody heard them.”
The 12 jurors sided with plaintiffs by a wide margin, Justice said, even after Carl Calnero, an attorney with Porter Scott who represented the utility, alleged in his opening statement that Justice was lying and used his closing statement to accuse the four plaintiffs of lying.
Justice said the strategy backfired. After the trial concluded, he said, a number of jurors approached him in the hall and told him they not only found the plaintiffs’ allegations of racial discrimination credible but that they also were turned off by SMUD leadership’s “continuing denial and argument and hiding and trying to justify their conduct.”
The jury awards were based on the size of raises that plaintiffs were denied and the loss of human dignity they suffered as a result of SMUD management’s actions, Justice said.
Plaintiffs’ allegations and damages awarded
Bates-Pettaway received more than $2.7 million in damages as part of the verdict, Justice said. At one point, she said, she managed about 30 people in SMUD’s warehouse operations. In the lawsuit, she alleged that she brought to procurement director Casey Fallon’s attention that a white male subordinate was acting in a hostile and insubordinate manner with her.
When Fallon did not take action, she said, she went to human resources to determine a path to correct her subordinate’s behavior. Fallon learned what she was doing and instructed HR not to intervene, saying that he would handle it, according to the suit.
Bates-Pettaway went on vacation, she said, and when she was due to return to work in June 2019, Fallon placed her on administrative leave for three months and informed her that he was investigating allegations that the subordinate had made against her.
SMUD said Fallon would not make a statement, and he did not respond to an email sent to him.
At the investigation’s conclusion, SMUD informed Bates-Pettaway that she could accept a demotion or termination, Bates-Pettaway alleged. To support his action, she said, Fallon sent Bates-Pettaway a letter that contained insults and inaccurate information. She said she has continued to face a pattern of harassment, retaliation and discrimination.
Ayers, a senior procurement specialist, was awarded more than $1.4 million in damages, her attorney said. Among her allegations: Despite having more experience and better qualifications than white candidates, she was not hired for several supervisorial positions that she sought.
In one case, when Ayers and a white male candidate were finalists for a position, Fallon required them to undergo a so-called “fit” interview to determine which candidate was the right fit for the job. Fallon used the fit interview as a way to exclude African American applicants, said Ayers, who said she has continued to face a pattern of retaliation, harassment and discrimination as a result of her complaint.
Pugh’s award totaled a little more than $1 million, Justice said. A former procurement specialist at SMUD, he alleged in the lawsuit that Fallon put obstacles in his way to moving from his probationary status of employment to becoming a full-time employee.
Since his hire, Pugh said, nine job applicants had moved into full-time positions, and eight of them were Caucasian. The only other person hired as a probationary employee during Pugh’s tenure also was an African American man, Pugh said, and he too faced delays in transitioning to full-time employment.
Pugh said he complained to SMUD that Fallon changed the transition requirements in a way to discriminate against African Americans, but Pugh said Fallon told him that he needed to improve his interviewing skills.
An outside firm was hired to investigate the complaint, Pugh said, and initially SMUD offered to share the results of that inquiry. Ultimately, though, the utility did not do so and told him that the investigator concluded his complaints were unfounded. Pugh said he has faced discrimination, retaliation and harassment, and he said that the company did not conduct its inquiry into his allegations in good faith.
Jurors awarded James $999,182, his attorney said. His employment with SMUD began in May 2019, and like Pugh, he was brought on as a probationary employee.
He applied in October 2019 for a position as warehouse supervisor, a position for which he was qualified, but he was not granted an interview, he said. In January 2020, his supervisor required him to write summaries of his work, something that his white coworkers were not required to do.
James said he complained to SMUD that he was being discriminated against because of his race, and he also reported that a vendor was harassing him. James applied in March 2020 to become a procurement supervisor, he said, but he was not asked to interview. In August 2020, James said, he and Pugh were required to document all work they did, something their peers were not required to do.
In October 2020, James said he finally obtained full-time employment with SMUD.
In July 2021, James said, his supervisors took a large and important project he was managing from him and assigned it to a white coworker, saying James did not have the competence or experience to handle it. James said he did have the know-how and that SMUD knew it.
In October 2021, James applied to be a procurement supervisor, the same position that Ayers had sought, but he said he was deemed not to be “the right fit.”
A manager conducting interviews told James he needed to find a mentor and take some classes if he wanted to advance at SMUD, James said, even though he was responsible for 26% of the output of his 18-person team.
James said he once again complained to HR about discrimination in the company’s promotional practices. He was subjected to retaliation, discrimination and harassment as a result of his complaints, he said. In one example, he was not invited to a business meeting involving his team.
Justice and his co-counsel Mark Brenner devoted a portion of the trial to explaining to jurors why his clients deserved damages for the anguish and stress they had endured in the past and would continue to experience in the future.
Roughly $1 million of Pugh’s award came from such non-economic damages. These damages accounted for 98% of James’ award, almost two-thirds of Bates-Pettaway’s award and 74% of Ayers’ award.
“You go to work and you devote your best efforts, but you know, no matter what you do, you’re only going to get so far at this company because you’re Black,” Justice said. “It’s not because you’re not qualified. It’s not because you’re not working hard enough. It’s not for any reason other than your skin color.”
The plaintiffs’ attorneys, both sole practitioners, will split the fees earned for their work. Each plaintiff agreed upfront to pay 40% of any jury award.
Robert Adams, another SMUD employee, has filed a lawsuit alleging that, even though he’s not Black, he has faced retaliation because he supported African American employees involved in this lawsuit.
This story was originally published November 14, 2024 at 1:24 PM.
